NASCAR has always been more than just racing. It’s about the noise, the speed, and the personalities behind the wheel. No personality looms larger than that of Dale Earnhardt Sr., the man known as The Intimidator. But what made him instantly recognizable wasn’t just the black No. 3 car or the sunglasses; it was the mustache. That thick, unapologetic brush of facial hair was his trademark. It was part of his brand, as essential as the racing suit he wore. Fans loved it. Sponsors expected it. And Dale Sr. protected it like it was part of his soul.

In fact, there was a time when Earnhardt shaved it off, but only out of necessity. During a rare vacation with Michael Waltrip, snorkelling in the Bahamas, his mustache interfered with the seal on his mask. “Man, I was just drowning. I got up on the boat and shaved. Then I could go down about 10-12 feet and not drown. I don’t think it’ll affect any of my racing skills. It didn’t in ’82, anyway. We still won races,” Dale Sr. later joked. Still, the trim felt like a betrayal of his own image.

His longtime barber Steve Ellsworth even remembered the hesitation the first time he touched the mustache: “He liked that big bushy mustache… When I finally trimmed it, he leaned over and said, ‘Oh Lord! Wrangler’s gonna fire me!” It was that serious. While Dale Sr. guarded his mustache with the same intensity he raced with, his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., took a very different route when it came to personal style. Especially in the early 2000s, Dale Jr. embraced looks that turned heads, not for being intimidating, but for being trendy. And now, 20 years later, those frosted tips and boy band vibes are back in the spotlight, thanks to his sister Kelley, who just admitted she played a big role in those fashion choices.

The truth behind Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s funky looks!

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was a walking contrast to his father. Where Dale Sr. was all grit and stoic, Dale Jr. added flair to the family name. In his early NASCAR days, he sported bleached tips and experimented with styles straight out of MTV’s TRL lineup. Frosted tips, spiky cuts, even the occasional scruffy chin, Junior wasn’t afraid to lean into the pop culture of the early 2000s. It made him relatable to younger fans and helped him stand out in commercials and sponsor shoots. This wasn’t the stern, sunglasses-wearing Intimidator. This was the guy-next-door heartthrob of NASCAR.

Recently, on the Rubbin’ is Racing podcast, Kelley Earnhardt finally came clean about her role in Junior’s memorable hair moments. When asked if she had ever tried to talk him out of his wild haircuts, she laughed and said, “I was probably a cheerleader for stuff like that.” She admitted that she supported him fully, even when the looks didn’t land with everyone. “You know why I think that was the case? Because living with our dad, we were always told what we were gonna do, how we were gonna do it, and when we were gonna do it. So, for him to have that freedom of choice, I was a cheerleader for that. I was like, ‘You go, guy,’” she further added.

Junior’s hair became a symbol of rebellion and independence in a world where their father tightly controlled his image. To really understand how different Dale Jr. was, it helps to look back at just how particular Dale Sr. was with his appearance. His mustache wasn’t just facial hair, it was sacred. His barber, Steve Ellsworth, remembered the pressure of getting it right. “The first three times I cut his hair, I couldn’t touch the mustache.” Dale Sr. believed even a bad trim could risk losing sponsors.

Junior, on the other hand, wore his hair like a mood ring, expressive and ever-changing. While his dad’s barber feared every snip, Kelley and Junior embraced the fun in a style experiment gone sideways. While Kelley was backing the boy-band look, Dale Jr.’s wife Amy wasn’t so supportive, at least not in hindsight. Earlier this year, on their Bless Your Heart podcast, she laughed about his frosted tips from the 2000s. “It feels like that’s a totally different human being that existed back then. Any guy who frosted their hair was a little silly… I can’t imagine him doing that, to be honest,” she said.

But Dale Jr. wasn’t alone in going full style mode. NASCAR has had its fair share of hair rebels. Kyle Petty rocked a ponytail. Ryan Blaney lets his curls fly. Austin Dillon’s hairstyles change with the season. Fans recently roasted Christopher Bell over fake photoshopped hairstyles—one even made him look like his mom. The style game has always had its lane in NASCAR, even when it’s just for laughs. So, while Dale Sr.’s mustache could make or break a sponsorship, Dale Jr.’s hair became a time capsule of early 2000s style. It was fun, wild, and a little cringeworthy, but totally him.

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When Dale Jr. met his father’s barber!

Back in 2015, at Michigan International Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had an unexpected, meaningful encounter. During a sponsor event with Suave Men, he was introduced to Steve Ellsworth, his father’s longtime barber. “It was neat to get a chance to meet him. It was kind of surreal,” Dale Jr. said. Ellsworth had been cutting Dale Sr.’s hair since the early 1980s. He wasn’t just a barber; he was part of the Intimidator’s inner circle.

“It was a privilege and honor to cut Dale’s hair. I was intimidated by the Intimidator, to say the least,” Ellsworth recalled. For the first few cuts, he couldn’t even touch the mustache. But once trust was earned, Ellsworth became Sr.’s go-to guy, even waking up for 5:30 a.m. haircuts with an egg sandwich in hand. “He could have gone anywhere, but he’d find time to come to me,” Ellsworth said. Suave even remembered giving a young Dale Jr. a few trims, though Junior had no memory of it. “He was just a kid,” Ellsworth smiled.

Now, years later, meeting the man who shaped the most iconic look in NASCAR gave Dale Jr. a special connection to his father. “Suave did a great job with this. This is just a really cool thing. Dad wouldn’t let just anyone cut his hair, so I know that Steve must be a good guy,” he said. That bond ran deep. And now, with Junior in the chair decades later, it was like history had folded in on itself. Suave called it ‘Speed & Style’, but for Dale Jr., it was something more personal. A connection to the man, the myth, and yes… the mustache.